is there universally despised. He studies to be thought a gentleman; but the native porter breaks through the veil of a ridiculously-affected, and outre politeness. Notwithstanding the complacent grimaces of his face, the self-sufficiency of his looks, his systematically-powdered and dressed hair, his showy dress, his counted and short bows, and his presumptuous conversation, teeming with ignorance, vulgarity, and obscenity, it cannot escape even the most inattentive observer.

The ambassador Bournonville, is now between fifty and sixty years of age; is a grand officer of our Imperial Legion of Honour; has a brother who is a turnkey, and two sisters, one married to a taylor, and the other to a merchant, who cries dogs' and cats' meat in our streets.

LETTER XLIX.

Paris, September, 1805.

MY LORD, BUONAPARTE did not at first intend to take his wife with him, when he set out for Strasburgh; but her tears, the effect of her tenderness and apprehension for his person, at last altered his resolution. Madame Napoleone, to tell the truth, does not like much to be in the power of Joseph, nor even in that of her sonin-law, Louis Buonaparte, should any accident make her a widow.

During the Emperor's absence, the former is the president of the Senate; and the latter the governor of this capital, and commander of his troops in the interior; so that the one dictates the Senatus Consultum, in case of a vacancy of the throne, and the other supports these civil determinations with his military forces. Even with the army in Germany, Napoleone's brother-in-law, Murat, is as a pillar of the Buonaparte dynasty, and to prevent the intrigues and plots of other generals, from an imperial diadem; while in Italy, his son-in-law, Eugenius de Beauharnois, as a viceroy, commands even the commander in chief Massena. It must be granted, that the Emperor has so ably taken his precautions, that it is almost certain that, at first, his orders will be obeyed, even after his death; and the will deposited by him in the Senate, without opposition, carried into execution. These very precautions evince, however, how uncertain and precarious he looks upon his existence to be, and that, notwithstanding ad•

dresses and oaths, he apprehends that the Buonaparte dynasty will not survive him.

Most of the generals now employed by him, are either of his own creation, or men on whom he has conferred rank and wealth, which they might consider unsafe under any other prince but a Buonaparte. The superior officers, not included in the above description, are such insignificant characters, that though he makes use of their experience and courage, he does not fear their views or ambition. Among the inferior officers, and even among the men, all those who have displayed, either at reviews or in battles, capacity, activity, or valour, are all members of his Legion of Honour; and are bound to him by the double tie of gratitude and self-interest. They look to him alone for future advancements, and for the preservation of the distinction they have obtained from him. His emissaries artfully disseminate, that a Bourbon would inevitably overthrow every thing a Buonaparte had erected; and that all military and civil officers, rewarded and favoured by Napoleone the First, will not only be discarded, but disgraced, and perhaps punished by Louis XVIII. Any person who would be imprudent enough to attempt to prove the impossibility, as well as the absurdity, of these impolitic and retrospective measures, would be instantly taken up and shot as an emissary of the Bourbons.

I have often amused myself in conversing with our new generals, and new officers; there is such a curious mixture of ignorance and information, of credulity and disbelief, of real boasting and affected modesty, in every thing they say or do in company; their manners are far from being elegant, but also very distant from vulgarity; they do not resemble those, of what we formerly called gens comme il faut and la bonne societe! nor those of the Bourgeoise, or the lower classes. They form a new species of fashionables, and a haut ton militaire, which strikes a person, accustomed to courts, at first, with surprise, and, perhaps, with indignation; though, after a time, those of our sex, at least, be'come reconciled, if not pleased with it, because there is a kind of military frankness interwoven with the military roughness. Our ladies, however, (I mean those who have seen other courts, or remember our other coteries) complain loudly of this alteration of address, and of this fashionable innovation; and pretend that our military, under the notion of being frank, are rude, and, by

the negligence of their manners and language, are not only of fensive, but inattentive and indelicate. This is so much the more provoking to them, as our imperial courtiers and imperial placemen do not think themselves fashionable, without imitating our military gentry, who take Napoleone for their exclusive model and chief in every thing, even in manners.

What I have said above, only applies to those officers, whose parents are not of the lowest class, or who entered so early or so young into the army, that they may be said to have been educated there; and, as they advanced, have assumed the ton of their comrades of the same rank. I was invited some time ago, to a wedding, by a jeweller, whose sister had been my nurse, and whose daughter was to be married to a captain of Hussars, quartered here. The bridegroom had engaged several other officers to assist at the ceremony, and to partake of the fete and ball that followed. A general of the name of Liebeau was also of the party, and obtained the place of honour by the side of the bride's mother. At his entrance into the apartment, I formed an opinion of him, which his subsequent conduct, during the ball, confirmed.

During the dinner he seemed to forget that he had a knife and a fork, and he did not eat of a dish, (and he ate of them all, numerous as they were) without bespattering or besmearing himself or his neighbours. He broke two glasses and one plate, and, for equality sake, I suppose, when he threw the wine on the lady to his right, the lady to his left was inundated with sauces. In getting up from dinner, to take coffee and liqueurs, according to our custom, as he took the hand of the mistress of the house, he seized at the same time a corner of the napkin, and was not aware of his blunder, till the destruction of bottles, glasses, and plates, and the screams of the ladies, informed him of the havoc and terror his awkward gallantry had occasioned.

When the ball began, he was too vain of his rank and precedency to suffer any one else to lead the bride down the first dance; but she was not, I believe, much obliged to him for his politeness; it cost her the tail of her wedding gown and a broken nail, and she continued lame during the remainder of the night. In making an apology to her for his want of dexterity, and assuring her that he was not so awkward in handling the enemies of his country in battle, as in handling the friends he esteemed in a dance, he gave no quarters to an old maiden aunt, whom, in the

violence of his gesticulation, he knocked down with his elbow, and laid sprawling on the ground. He was sober when these accidents literally occurred.

Of this original I collected the following particulars: Before the revolution he was a soldier in the regiment of Flanders, from which he deserted and became a corporal in another regiment in 1793, he was a drum-major in one of the battalions in garrison at Paris. You remember the struggles of factions in the latter part of May, and in the beginning of June the same year, when Brissot and his accomplices were contending with Marat, Robespierre, and their adherents, for the reins of power. On the first of June, the latter party could not get a drummer to beat the alarm, though they offered money and advancement; at last Robespierre stept forward to Liebeau, and said, "Citizen, beat the alarm march, and to day you shall be nominated a general.” Liebeau obeyed, Robespierre became victorious, and kept his promise; and thus my present associate gained his rank. He has since been employed under Jourdan in Germany, and under Le Courbe in Switzerland. When under the former, he was or dered to retreat towards the Rhine, he pointed out the march route to his division, according to his geographical knowledge, but mistook upon the map the river Maine for a turnpike road, and commanded the retreat accordingly. Ever since, our troops have called that river La chausee de Liebeau. He was not more fortunate in Helvetia. Being ordered to cross one of the mountains, he marched his men into a glacier, where twelve perished, be÷ fore he was aware of his mistake.

Being afterwards appointed a governor of Blois, he there became a petty insupportable tyrant, and laid all the inhabitants indiscriminately under arbitrary contribution. Those who refused to pay, were imprisoned as aristocrats, and their property confiscated in the name and on the part of the nation; that is to say, he appropriated to himself, in the name of the nation, every thing that struck his fancy; and if any complaints were made, the owners wers seized, and sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris, to be condemned, as the correspondents or adherents of the royalists of La Vendee. After the death of Robespierre, he was deprived of this profitable place, in which, during the short space of eleven months, he amassed five millions of livres

(208,000) The Directory then gave him a division, first under Jourdan, and afterwards under Le Courbe. Buonaparte, after witnessing his incapacity in Italy, in 1800, put him on the full half pay, and has lately made him a commander of the Legion of Honour.

His dear spouse, Madame Liebeau, is his counterpart. When he married her, she was crying mackerel and herrings in our streets; but she told me in confidence, during the dinner, being seated by my side, that her father was an officer of fortune, and a Chevalier of the order of St. Louis. She assured me that her husband had done greater services to his country than Buonaparte; and that, had it not been for his patriotism in 1793, the Austrians would have taken Paris. She was very angry with Madame Napoleone, to whom she had been presented, but who had not shown her so much attention and civility as was due to her husband's rank, having never invited her more than to one supper and two tea-parties; and, when invited by her, had sent Duroc with an apology that she was unable to come, though the same evening she went to the opera.

Another guest, in the regimentals of a colonel, seemed rather bashful when I spoke to him. I could not comprehend the reason, and therefore inquired of our host, who he was.-(You know that with us it is not the custom to introduce persons by name, &c. as in your country, when meeting in mixed companies.) He answered, "do you not remember your brother's jockey, Frial?"—"Yes," said I, "but he was established by my brother as a hairdresser."-"He is the very same person," replied the jeweller; "he has fought very bravely, and is now a colonel of dragoons, a great favourite with Buonaparte, and will be a general at the first promotion." As the colonel did not seem to desire a renewal of acquaintance with me, I did not intrude myself upon him.

During the supper the military gentlemen were encouraged by the bridegroom, and the bottle went round very freely; and the more they drank, the greater and more violent became their political discussions. Liebeau vociferated in favour of republican and revolutionary measures, and avowed his approbation of requisitions, confiscations, and the guillotine; while Frial inclined to the regular and organised despotism of one, to secret trial,